One of the most beautiful and treasured Santa Fe public spaces is the Harvey H. Cornell Sr. Memorial Rose Garden Park at the corner of Cordova Road and Galisteo Street. This gently sloping tract of land, given to the city in the 1930s, was all tumbleweeds and blowing dirt that annoyed inhabitants of the new houses being built around the site. It became a park in 1958 when private citizens invited Harvey Cornell, an eminent landscape architect and frequent Santa Fe visitor, to turn it into an oasis of lawns and trees for everyone to enjoy. At the south end, garden clubs planted irises. At the north end, Cornell designed a rose garden set among tiered stones.

“There is not enough water to irrigate all the lands.” So said John Wesley Powell in 1893 after four
extensive scientific surveys of the West. His warning was dismissed but has proved to be prophetic.

In the 3 billion years since life first appeared on Earth plants have evolved driven by survival. They have been subjected to fire, floods, glaciers, drought, predators, competition and disease. Ninety-nine percent of all species that have ever lived on Earth have gone extinct. Nevertheless, today, plants make up 80 percent of the Earth’s biomass.